Comments to Federal Communications Commission on Broadband Privacy

The Federal Communications Commission should abandon its flawed broadband privacy proposal, ITIF telecom policy analyst Doug Brake argued in comments. The proceeding rests on numerous faulty assumptions about broadband providers’ ability to collect information, competition in broadband and related markets, consumers’ willingness to make tradeoffs, and existing privacy safeguards. The Federal Trade Commission, which has long enforced fair trade practices across the Internet ecosystem, should continue its broadband privacy oversight. The FTC offers a sound balance of consumer protection with innovative data use, and preserves an even field for competition.